The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch

Happy Thanksgiving From Gov. Brewer: Now Forget About Help From The State

The Arizona Guardian brings us this video of a press conference with Gov. Jan Brewer, Senate President Bob Burns and Speaker of the House Kirk Adams.

Check it out: Brewer cheerfully announces that the state has now cut a billion dollars in spending under her watch. That includes $130 million from the Department of Economic Security in the last go-round, which means that poor people who depend on government assistance are going to see a whole lot less and workers who are employed by DES or social-services that get money from DES are going to lose their jobs.

Then Brewer wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Yes, Tiny Tim is sure to have a wonderful holiday season!

Brewer also tells reporters that maybe she's not so worried about asking voters to approve the temporary one-cent sales-tax hike that had been the centerpiece of her plan to save the state.

Then Adams steps up the mike to complain that Democrats have offered no ideas through the budget crisis. Look, we're not buying that the Democratic plan that was offered was going to do all that they promised it would, but you can't honestly say they haven't offered any solutions. Their proposal, which included a plan to lower the overall sales-tax rate and extend it to services that are now untaxed, may not have been the GOP's liking, but Democrats made a serious proposal. Even the Goldwater Institute—rarely an ally of Democrats—said the idea was worth considering. (GI was less enthused about a Democratic proposal to increase income taxes on higher earners and increase property taxes.)

Why is Adams afraid to just say he doesn't like their ideas? Why is compelled to lie about them?